Chapter IX: The Buddhism of the Japanese

"A drop of spray cast by the infinite
I hung an instant there, and threw my ray
To make the rainbow. A microcosm I
Reflecting all. Then back I fell again,
And though I perished not, I was no more."--
The Pantheist's Epitaph.

"Buddhism is essentially a religion of compromise."

"Where Christianity has One Lord, Buddhism has a dozen."

"I think I may safely challenge the Buddhist priesthood to give
a plain historical account of the Life of Amida, Kwannon,
Dainichi, or any other Mahāyāna Buddha, without being in
serious danger of forfeiting my stakes."

"Christianity openly puts this Absolute Unconditioned Essence in
the forefront of its teaching. In Buddhism this absolute
existence is only put forward, when the logic of circumstances
compels its teachers to have recourse to it."--A. Lloyd, in The
Higher Buddhism in the Light of the Nicene creed.

"Now these six characters, 'Na-mu-A-mi-da-Butsu,' Zend-ō has
explained as follows: 'Namn' means [our] following His
behest--and also [His] uttering the Prayer and bestowing [merit]
upon us. 'Amida Butsu' is the practice of this, consequently by
this means a certainty of salvation is attained."

"By reason of the conferring on us sentient creators of this
great goodness and great merit through the utterance of the
Prayer, and the bestowal [by Amida] the evil Karma and [effect
of the] passions accumulated through the long Kalpas, since when
there was no beginning, are in a moment annihilated, and in
consequence, those passions and evil Karma of ours all
disappearing, we live already in the condition of the steadfast,
who do not return [to revolve in the cycle of Birth and
Death]."--Rennyō of the Shin sect, 1473.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God."--John.

"The Father of lights, with whom there is no variableness,
neither shadow of turning."--James.